The Return of Old Friends
by goldenstar93
Summary: An old nemesis might be returning to get revenge on the team. How will this effect Hotch and Prentiss' budding relationship? Can they hold it together through all this or will this new adversary tear them apart? Takes place several years after season 10. Update: As of 3/22/16, this story has undergone a revision that fixes several problems with the old story.
1. Chapter 1

**A/U: This is a half adventure fic and half romance one, focusing on the growing relationship between Hotch and Prentiss.**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own CM.**

"Hotch? Hotch?"

Hotch snapped out of his thoughts.

"Yes?"

"Let's get going, man. The plane is about to leave."

Hotch grew annoyed with himself. He rarely got distracted this much but this case was unsettling, to say the least. The team was heading off to Manhattan, working on a case that had been open for months now. This was now the fifth couple found in their car, dead, shot execution style. It seemed like an ordinary crime scene, if a crime scene could be called ordinary, yet, what was bothering Hotch was how familiar the crime scenes looked.

Of course, Reid had suggested that it looked like the work of the Son of Sam, and that there was a copycat on the loose. The team agreed with him, even Hotch. After all, the Son of Sam was a very notorious killer and thus, prone to be copied. The MO fit his almost perfectly.

Hotch however felt like he had worked this particular case before. Hotch obviously didn't work the Son of Sam case, so he wouldn't be very familiar with how the crime scenes looked and yet, these crime scenes, with the executed couples, the abandoned vehicles and the lack of evidence made Hotch feel as if he had been there before. He had told the team this but they couldn't really follow up on it and Hotch was basically dismissed.

He felt a light touch on his shoulder. "You ok?"

He looked to his side and saw Emily Prentiss there. Suddenly, the crime scene, the bureau and everything disappeared. Hotch couldn't help but get a feeling of joy at seeing Emily. Prentiss had just left the Interpol recently and rejoined the BAU team. She had been here for almost half a year now and her relationships were basically back to way they were before she had left, other than her relationship with Hotch. Just a few months ago, they decided to go on a date together and they both realized that they had a lot more in common than they had thought. They started spending more and more time together; at first, they mainly just talked about work, but they started talking about more intimate things afterwards, such as their hobbies, secrets and past love lives. "Still, we've only been together for a few months now", thought Hotch. "Aren't these feelings too much?"

He turned back to face Emily.

"I'm fine. Just thinking about the case."

"You're still thinking about why the scene looks so familiar to you, aren't you?"

Hotch couldn't bring himself to lie to her.

"I know that you guys wanted me to drop it…"

Emily put her finger on Hotch's mouth, hushing him.

"If you really think it will help us on this case, I think you should keep working on it."

"Really?"

"We aren't making much headway with the case otherwise, and to be honest, I completely trust you on this. People don't get feelings like yours on accident. You have seen this case somewhere else before. You just need to keep digging deeper."

"Thanks Em."

Hotch produced a rare smile. Emily smiled back at him. He was tempted to kiss her and she noticed it. She closed her eyes and waited for his move. Hotch's mouth was just a couple of centimeters away from Emily's when he moved away. Emily looked disappointed but she understood. She walked away while saying, "See you on the plane. You better hurry up too. It leaves in four minutes."

Hotch sat down and wondered and worried about how serious this relationship with Emily was. After all, he had nearly kissed her at work, with plenty of people watching and with a strong reputation of being the hardened leader of the BAU with few emotions. How would it look and how would it affect his status, if he was seen kissing his coworker in the middle of the room?

Suddenly, he looked at the time. It was 1:28 with only 2 minutes before the plan took off.

Hotch got up from his seat and started sprinting for his life.

"HOTCH! Come on!"

This was Morgan yelling at him from the plane. Hotch ran as fast as he could and made it just inside before the deadline. He ran so quickly that he was disoriented and ended up tackling Morgan once he was inside.

"Hey man. Watch where you're going."

"Sorry."

Hotch got up and brushed himself over.

"You ok, Morgan?"

Morgan chuckled. "No offense but look at the size of me and look the size of you. I should be the one asking you that."

The group laughed, including Hotch.

"Point taken."

As Hotch went to sit down, Morgan asked, "This case really bothers you, huh?"

Hotch stayed silent, indicating yes.

"Even if it does, you have got to stop daydreaming about it. This is the third week where you've almost missed the plane on this case, and about the tenth where you've just dozed off when you shouldn't have."

"Sorry."

"If you're gonna doze off, daydream or whatever, do it at times like this. Where were all grouped together and you can share your thoughts with us and we can help you put this puzzle together."

"Thanks, Morgan. But to be honest, I still haven't gotten anywhere with this case."

Reid spoke up, "So, let's start from the beginning so we can all have a fresh mind on this. Since Hotch feels like he has worked this case before, the unsub must be from an unsolved case a while back. With his MO being shooting couples in their vehicles."

JJ said, "Yes but we've had Garcia check our prior cases. While there were a lot of Son of Sam copycat cases, all those cases have been solved. The unsubs are all either in prison or dead."

"Let's just focus on what we have here then. The evidence, the victimology and all that. If we really can't get anything after that, then we can consider linking this to a previous case." Rossi interjected

The team murmured in slight agreement. No one wanted to just ignore Hotch but the team wasn't making any progress when they were all focused on his ideas.

"Alright, let's take a break and look at these crime scenes individually. Come back here in 30 minutes to discuss any new leads."

The group split up and went to different areas of the plane. Hotch went near the back, where he could be alone and perhaps, be able to make sense of all this.

He thought for a while but couldn't really think of anything. Slowly, he dozed off when suddenly, he was lost in the sounds of gunfire, a masked unsub and the corpses of couples. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Emily Prentiss walking towards him. He quickly snapped out of it and returned to reality. She sat down on the seat opposite of his.

"You know what the problem is, right?"

Hotch gave her a confused look.

"What are you talking about?"

"You're just thinking too much about this. It happens to the best of us." she said matter-of-factly.

"Em, I've tried to stop thinking about it but I just can't."

"Let me help then. How's Jack doing?"

"What?" Hotch was startled by the random question.

"I'm trying to get your mind of this case. So, as I said, how's Jack?"

"He…oh, it's no use. I'm not going to talk about my private life when we're in the middle of work."

"I see…."

Suddenly, Emily got up and sat down beside Hotch. She slowly and deliberately raised her hand, soft and pale like winter snow, and placed it onto Hotch's leg. She looked right into her boss's eyes and slowly moved it onto his inner thigh, very close to the area between his legs.

Hotch's face flushed red and his heartbeat accelerated.  
"Em, what are you doing?"

She smiled. "As if you don't know."

"Are you crazy?"

Hotch tried to draw away from Prentiss but she had him pinned between the side of the plane and her body. He tried standing up but Emily anticipated this and quickly strapped Hotch's seat belt into the buckle and then swiftly sat on the buckle, so that he couldn't reach it.

She whispered seductively into his ear, her hot breathe causing tingles, "Looks like you have no choice now."

Hotch looked nervous, so much that if a team member were to look at his face, they might think that he was going to wet himself.

Abruptly, Prentiss drew back her hand and laughed. "Gotcha!"

"God, Em. That's not funny", but he started laughing too.

"Well, that was for the kiss from earlier. You should know better than to ditch a lady like that. And besides, it worked, right? Your head is now free from our case?"

"There's only one way to find out."

She rested her head on Hotch's shoulder.

"So, how's Jack?"

It was a struggled but Hotch managed to find himself straying away from the awful crime scene and towards Jack. He answered Emily's question with a substantial amount of detail while Emily listened on, a smile still resting on her face.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

"Alright guys, let's gather around", said Rossi.

Emily felt like a student at school again being woken up by her mother in the morning. She tells Hotch this and he smiles. She slowly and reluctantly moved away from Hotch and towards the rest of the team, missing his warm and gentle touch as soon as the physical contact between them disappeared.

She notices Hotch still staying where he was. She turns around to ask him, "You coming?"

"I'll be right there." Hotch took a while to regather his files and unbuckle his seat belt before joining the rest of the team.

"Seemed like you two were having quite a bit of fun over there" as Rossi put on his signature sarcastic smirk.

"What do you mean?" asked Morgan. The others looked confused as well. Apparently, Rossi was the only one who noticed, Hotch thought. He silently prayed that Rossi would keep quiet and not be such a blabbermouth.

"Never mind. We have something else to talk about. What have you guys got?"

Hotch breathed a sigh of relief.

"Let's start from the beginning. Victims are Diane Brooke and Adam Henry. Age 24 and 27. Both white. They were getting home after eating at a restaurant with a couple of their friends when they stopped suddenly in the middle of the road. That's when they were shot by our unsub."

"Presumable our unsub used a ruse and distracted them long enough to get into a position where they were able to shoot both of them, execution-style. For the last four crime scenes, no evidence was left behind. I don't think there will be any this time either." Reid summed up.

"All of our victims don't seem to share any connection with one other. Other than their respective partners, of course."

"Our unsub has killed from ages of 19 to 56. All of them have different socioeconomic backgrounds." JJ continued.

"Well, there's what differentiates him between the Son of Sam. He goes after basically anybody, unlike the Son of Sam who killed mostly young females."

"Yeah, unfortunately, these types of unsubs are the most difficult to catch" Morgan adds. "But we could try seeing if there's a connection between the areas where he killed the victims."

Hotch decided to take charge again. "Let's do that after we get set up at the Manhattan office. Reid, you, Morgan and JJ go look at the crime scene. Me, Prentiss and Rossi will go to the station."

Hotch went back to where he sat before. He noticed Emily stayed where she was, to talk to Reid. An pang of jealousy then went through Hotch.

* * *

 _A few hours later_

JJ, Rossi and Reid walked towards the crime scene, where a few officers remained after a long day of work.

"Manhattan gives me the creeps." Reid said.

"Why is that?" JJ asked.

"I read that Greenwich Village's Washington Square Park was used as a mass graveyard for people who were killed by the yellow fever epidemic. Been terrified of the city ever since."

JJ and Rossi exchanged amused glances.

The deputy chief sees the members of the BAU walking towards him and holds out his hand in greeting.

The BAU trio introduced themselves and asked if the police have found anything.

"Nothing so far. You guys can take a look and then we're bringing the body back with us."

They gathered around the body, concentrating as hard as they could, looking for clues.

"You guys see anything?"

"Nope. How about you, JJ?"

She shook her head. "Our unsub is very good. It's been a long time since we've had an unsub this clever. Nothing in five straight crime scenes."

"Well I'm going to go tell the deputy then. Someone's gotta give him the bad news and it might as well be me. " Rossi hated to admit defeat but he was stumped too. How could nothing show up in 5 straight crime scenes? Could the unsub be a forensic scientist or in law enforcement?

Just as Reid was about to give up, he noticed something shining in his eyes.

"Wait a minute guys!"

He picked up something off the ground and smiled. He might just have discovered their first lead. Reid held it out so JJ and Rossi could take a look at it. "It looks like a piece of black plastic. From a uniform or something similar."

"Not exactly as good as a fingerprint would have been but it's something. Find if there's any trace evidence on it when we get back with Hotch."

* * *

 _Back at the station_

Hotch, Prentiss and Rossi meet up with the captain. "Captain, I'm Agent Hotchner, this is Agent Prentiss and that's Agent Rossi". They all shake hands with the captain.

"Glad you're here. We could really use your help. We haven't had a serial killer like this in a long time. He's methodical, careful and cunning. But I've heard of your team's reputation" the captain had a hopeful look on his face. "After reading a bit about you guys, I definitely have faith that you will be able to catch this guy."

Hotch then notices two pairs of grieving parents standing nearby. "I see that Brooke's and Henry's parents are here. Is it ok to question them?"

The captain nodded. "They have been here a while. Be careful around them, they're still in shock. Also, I have questioned them myself and it doesn't look like they know anything about the person who did this."

Hotch walks over to one set of parents who introduce themselves as Brooke's parents. Hotch gently introduces himself and guides Brooke's parents to an interview room while Prentiss does the same with the other family.

In the interview room, Hotch gives his best sympathetic look at Brooke's parents. "I'm sorry about your loss." Nearly every person in law enforcement was taught these words, but Hotch actually meant it when he said them.

"I know this is very difficult for you two. Would you tell me if anything strange was going on in Diane's life? In her relationship with her boyfriend? Or with other people?"

The mother takes a while before answering, "No one new entered her life. She had been working in the same place for years now and her close group of friends has been the same for a long time too."

She is about to say more but she breaks down into tears. The father puts his arms around her and continues for her.

"S...she was having troubles with her boyfriend. She was losing interest in him. The spark just wasn't there anymore. It probably had something to do with her being promoted at work and spending more time at the office instead of with him."

The last two sentences made Hotch worry about his own relationship. Was the fact that he was spending so much time on this case making him less appealing to Emily?

"That's not going to happen", he thought.

"Other than that, nothing else was out of the ordinary", said the dad.

Hotch stands up and says, "Thank you for your time."

Hotch guides them out of the room and met up with Prentiss, who had finished talking to the other family a few minutes ago.

"Brooke's parents said that she was growing distant from her boyfriend."

"Well Hotch, that happens with a lot of couples. It doesn't really mean anything."

Hotch suddenly finds himself unable to meet Prentiss' eyes and she notices this. She clears her throat and continues, "The other four couples seemed to be perfectly happy with their relationship. I think that's irrelevant to the case. Did they mention anything else?"

"No, nothing else."

"Neither did the Henry family." She sighed and places her hands in her pockets, her personal way of displaying frustration. "Looks like we'll be here a while."

Hotch thinks back to previous difficult cases. "You know, in cases like these...a very important piece of evidence is bound to show itself. Important enough so that it could identify the unsub just by itself."

"Oh, look at that. I never knew you were an optimist." Emily teased and lightly touches Hotch's arm.

Hotch felt like he was going to melt once he felt her touch but he quickly regained control of himself.

"I'm just speaking out of experience."

"Well I hope you're right." Emily notices Rossi, Reid and JJ entering the PD. "Let's go check in with the rest of them."

* * *

"A piece of plastic?"

"We sent it to analysis for now but that's all we've got" Rossi admits.

"Nothing too helpful from the families either" Hotch frowns. "Reid, we really need you to finish working on triangulating the locations of the murders."

Reid frantically scribbles and replies, "Almost got it. I don't think we'll be able to narrow things down that much, since these locations are pretty far apart, but it will be a start."

An officer walks to their table and hands Prentiss a file.

"Looks like the ME report just came in."

"Anything that will help us catch this bastard?" Morgan asked.

Prentiss hands it the file over to Hotch since it is was considered respectful to have the team leader look at it first. As Prentiss' hand touches Hotch, Hotch suddenly finds himself unable to focus or concentrate. He tries to read the ME's report but his mind is too distracted and foggy to even be able to comprehend one paragraph properly.

"Doesn't look like it..." he nervously lies.

Rossi takes the report from Hotch to take a look for himself.

"Hey wait a minute. This is strange. The ME found ashes inside our male victim's nostrils."

Hotch looked embarrassed but luckily, everyone was too busy thinking about what the ME's findings could have meant, to notice how Hotch failed to go over the ME's report properly.

The team tries connecting the evidence together in their heads, even when there were still so few. JJ is the first to speak up. "Maybe our unsub is a firefighter. The black plastic we found could be part of his uniform and the ashes are from his job."

Morgan says, "Well, we have nothing else to go on. Maybe we can call Garcia and have her run a quick test."

Reid, meanwhile, looks up. "I'm done. I have a 50 mile radius of these coordinates. It's obviously not much by itself, as it's a large radius, but we can cross-check that with JJ's fireman theory."

Hotch goes over to the phone and calls Garcia.

"What's up, babycake?"

Hotch briefly smiles at Garcia's childishness and then asks, "We need you to cross check this radius with any firefighters in the area. It could be a fire station or a residence of a firefighter."

Reid tells Garcia the coordinates and the team hears the clickety-clack sounds of Garcia pounding away on her keyboard.

"Ouch. Looks like your search returned zilch."

"Well thanks anyways, Garcia."

Hotch hangs up and looks at his team, in a way that suggests that he is expecting more ideas from them. Morgan notices Hotch's expression and sighs, "We just can't work off of this little evidence. And we still can't make a profile of this guy. Victimology is completely random. As are the locations. No motive that we know of either. There's not enough to work with."

Hotch frowns but reluctantly agrees with Morgan.

"Alright everyone, let's take a break. Get our heads cleared out and come back fresh". Hotch opens the door and walks outside to catch a breath of fresh air.

Hotch sits down, still thinking about he thinks he has seen this unsub before. Nothing has come to mind, as the only similarity between this case and previous cases, is the MO of shooting couples in their vehicles and, as JJ said, the unsubs in those cases were in prison or dead. Suddenly he spots Prentiss walking towards him.

"How are you holding up?" she asks.

"I'm fine" he answers as nonchalantly as possible.

"I know that you failed to read the ME report properly. I took a look at it and it wasn't that difficult to spot, Hotch. So, please tell me the truth."

Hotch looks at her and she looks encouragingly back at him.

"It...it's the same as before. I know this guy. Our unsub. I'm sure of it. Everytime I hear about him, I get distracted."

"Don't you think you should go home and rest? Get a fresh head?"

"I'm fine."

"I hope so." She smiles and reassures him, "You will solve this case. Not single-handily, of course. Not with a genius like me around." Hotch appreciates Prentiss trying to lighten the mood and laughs at her joke and the sound of his laugh makes Emily laugh too. She continues, "But you will end up figuring out something about our unsub. Something key. When we solve this case, we will all agree that we wouldn't be able to do it without you."

Hotch gazes back at her, flustered.

"I don't know what to say" he laughs nervously.

Prentiss looks lovingly into his eyes and says, "Don't say anything."

Hotch tenses himself and is about kiss Emily when Rossi walks out. "Come on lovebirds. Let's get back to work."

Hotch reluctantly parts with Prentiss and they walk back inside.

* * *

 _At the end of the day_

As Hotch is walking back to the team's hotel, he thinks not about the troubling and difficult case that they've been sent here for, but about his relationship with Emily.

"I've been acting very strange around her recently" Hotch considers. "I guess it must be because of the case. I can't wait until we catch this guy. Something about this case just...isn't right."

Hotch reaches the door to the hotel and swings it open. He dwelves further into his thoughts. "Is it just this case that's making me feel like this? Maybe my feelings for Prentiss are stronger than I thought. Than I want." He thinks back to their very first kiss. He remembered that it was very passionate yet relaxing and comforting at the same time. Usually, kisses were just one or the other. Hotch had wanted to kiss her for even longer but couldn't as first kisses typically supposed to be short. He ended up being quite disappointed after that and even more so when she had to go.

Hotch suddenly realizes he has reached the entrance of his room for a while now. He thinks about how embarrassing it would have been if someone walked by and saw Hotch just standing outside his door, doing absolutely nothing. As Hotch puts in his key and is about to open the door to his room, he senses something incredibly wrong. He quickly looks behind him and spots a shadow of a person. The person quickly vanishes along with their shadow causing Hotch to wonder if his eyes were playing tricks on him.

"Could our unsub know who I am?" Hotch thought to himself. "And how could he have followed me without anyone noticing?" Questions like these leap through Hotch's mind but after a while, he decides to enters his room, on edge...


	3. Chapter 3

Hotch entered his room feeling even more nervous than before. Was the shadow from just a few moments ago just his imagination gone haywire or was someone actually following him? It was bad news for Hotch either way.

He sighed, put down his belongings and turned on the lights. He gathered a copy of the M.E report as well as a few other case files and started to look them over. Like Reid, Hotch found that studying and reading were activities that helped him relax, provided that he managed to make it through the first few minutes without getting distracted. He was looking over one particular photo and just then, thought that he saw something that would help them with their current case.

"BOOM, BOOM!"

A loud knock on his door interrupted him and startled him so much that he sent a few files flying to the floor. He quickly gathered them up before he sprinted to the door. He swiftly took a peek through the keyhole, but saw no one. He opened the door and still, no one was in sight.

He was about to go back to reading when the door is knocked on again. Hotch assumed a fighting stance, reading to defend himself from an attack. He counted to three in his mind and swung open the door. Once again, no one was in sight. Hotch relaxed and turned back. He checked out the floor to make sure that he had gathered all the files that he dropped. He turned around again to close the door when Prentiss suddenly popped up from nowhere.

"Boo!"

Normally Hotch wouldn't have fallen for this and would have seen it coming but tonight was different. Hotch acted like he had just saw a werewolf jump in front of his face.

"Ah god!" he swore and stumbled backwards. He landed on the ground rather roughly.

Prentiss started laughing at first but after a few seconds, she stopped and grew worried about Hotch. She helped Hotch up to his feet and suddenly became nervous. She instantly regretted pranking Hotch like that and was fully ready to get reamed out for doing something that stupid.

Hotch turned to face her but instead of being angry, he looked exasperated. "Emily, that's not funny. This case is making me more nervous than anything else in years and you decide to make fun of me."

Emily hesitated at first but argued back, "Well, that's why I did it. You're always moping around all the time and making yourself feel worse."

In a gentler voice, she said, "I know how much this case means to you, but you won't be able to do anything if you feel down all the time."

"And you think scaring me will help?"

"Well, it has before."

Smiling, she recalled the time when Hotch was anxious about whether Jack would like the new present Hotch was going to give him. She didn't like seeing Hotch so on edge and decided to wear Jack's Halloween mask and jump Hotch from a corner when he least expected it. She managed to give him a good fright that had her laughing her guts out at his reaction. Surprisingly, not only was Hotch not mad, he lost all his uneasiness and they playfully spent the rest of the day engaging in a prank war.

"It's different this time, ok? Being nervous about a dangerous psychopath is different than being nervous about getting my son a present."

Also from experience, Emily knew when it was time to stop an argument with Hotch. "Besides, he's right. What was I thinking?" she thought to herself.

"I'm sorry, Aaron" she apologized.

Hotch looked at her and she put on an irresistible doe-eyed, sad face which she knew Hotch couldn't resist. He tries to resist smiling but after a while, he couldn't help it.

"Looks like that worked, huh?" she lightly teased.

Looking away, he said "Not even close. You're an idiot to scare me at a time like this." He pauses and admits. "But I'm not mad at you anymore." They both already knew that Hotch could never stay mad at Emily for very long.

They sat down on the bed together, silently enjoying each other's company. Prentiss teased Hotch about being a scaredy-cat and Hotch lightly pushed her away. After a bit more playful banter, they both stand back up at the same time. Hotch suddenly remembered that he was focusing pretty heavily on one of the case files, just before Emily came.

"Emily, I was looking over the crime scene photos before you came and something caught my mind. Can you come look at it?"

Emily's face looked worried upon hearing this but she nodded. She wasn't surprised that he had caught something everyone else had missed. Members of the BAU always seemed to pull through on cases that were most personal to them and this case was obviously the most personal to Hotch.

Hotch took out a photo with a good view of their latest victims and pointed at the piece of plastic they found.

"Doesn't it look like it came from something familiar?"

Emily looked confused and responded no.

Hotch took out a zoomed up photo of the evidence that Reid had discovered.

"You see how it's curved like that? I think it came from a mask..."

Emily examined the picture more carefully and pondered over it for a while. Then she saw it. The curvature did seem to resemble the corner of the jaw from a mask. Finally, she looked at Hotch.

"I think you're right about that. It looks like the corner of the jaw area of a mask. It must have been knocked loose from a struggle."

"Or maybe it came off from it wearing down over time."

Prentiss looked at Hotch who seemed more alive and excited than he has been since the case started.

"But Hotch, this still doesn't really get us anywhere. We won't be able to identify the exact mask just from this, and a lot of serial killers wear masks anyways." Emily felt terrible getting Hotch's hopes down like this but she knew that she had to point it out to him.

However, Hotch didn't look disappointed at all. He gazed back at Emily and she continued, "Still, this is pretty helpful. We can tell the team about this tomorrow and we'll see if any other evidence comes up" she reassured.

Out of the blue, Hotch said, "I just really want this case to end", more so to himself than to Prentiss.

Emily comfortingly took Hotch's hand into her own and guided him back onto the bed, where they sat beside one another.

"You will make it end. This guy won't be hurting anyone else. You're going to make sure of that but you will also need our help. We're going to work together as a team to get this guy."

Hotch looked startled at her boldness, especially about the part about the unsub not being able to hurt anyone else. How many times have they promised people that an unsub wouldn't hurt anyone else and were wrong about that? Too many to count, he thought to himself. At the same time, her confidence managed to ease his mind, which nothing else had been able to do so far.

Hotch felt a yawn well up inside him and restrained it. He looked up at the time and noticed that it was getting late. As if on cue, Emily does give out a light yawn, which Hotch found adorable.

He told Emily, "You should head back to your room. We both need some sleep for the long day we have ahead of us."

Prentiss agreed but said "I was wondering if I could sleep here tonight. We shouldn't be alone by ourselves you know. Our unsub could be in this hotel" she joked.

"Just as long as it's just sleep, fine."

"Ok, fine" she grumbled. "I was hoping you can go to third base with me followed by a home run. Can I get one kiss at least?" She sat down on the bed and beckoned to him.

Hotch sat down as well and closed his eyes, about to kiss her when Prentiss suddenly tackled Hotch and straddled him.

"Ouch!"

Hotch tried to escape but Emily moved up to his chest and sat on him in a way that her legs pinned down his arms.

"Gotcha!" Emily smiled.

Hotch struggled for a while before he abruptly gained a burst of strength, which was enough to throw her off and reverse their positions.

"What was that for?" he asked.

"Just for the fun of it", she admitted.

"Can you stop goofing around?" he grumbled.

Prentiss couldn't help but laugh at his irritation and Hotch smiled too. Emily's laugh was one of the few laughs that managed to lift his mood.

After they stopped, they were both aware that they were looking into each other's eyes from only inches apart. From here, they both realized that they had the same idea. They both closed their eyes and embraced in a long, well-deserved kiss that made them want to stay there forever. Reluctantly, they stopped and Hotch let Emily up.

Tired, Prentiss stretched her arms and yawned once more.

"Well, I guess that's my cue. Good night."

"Good night, Em."

Emily curled up on the bed and fell asleep almost immediately. Hotch took a few minutes to take one last look at the case files and was examining the picture of the most recent victims again. He stared at it, as if the picture was speaking to him. Nothing came to him for a while when, out of nowhere, Hotch had a flashback.

He found himself no longer with Emily in their hotel room, but on a bus that had stopped for a passenger. Hotch was standing right in the middle of the bus when a strange man came on board. Hotch looked around for a few moments, taking in the bored and tired looking faces around him. He noticed that the driver still wasn't taking off despite no one else coming on board and decided to walk further towards the front. He noticed that the driver and the man who just boarded were having an argument. Suddenly, the man pulled out two guns and shot the driver, killing him instantly. Hotch reached for his own gun but realized that, since he was wearing civilian clothes, it was not there. The man, who wore a black mask, walked right through Hotch like he wasn't even there, and shot at everyone, right from the front of the bus to the very back. Hotch stood there helplessly and watched, as everyone on board was killed. The man suddenly turned back to Hotch and looked at him through the slits of his mask. He gave a chuckle that made Hotch's blood go cold.

The man said, "I always save the best for the last". He raised his gun and pointed it at Hotch. Hotch tried to run but he was unable to make it off the bus before he heard a shot. He quickly turned around just to see the bullet an inch from his chest...


	4. Chapter 4

Hotch gasped in a panicking tone, and then suddenly found himself back in reality. He looked over at Prentiss who was still sleeping peacefully, shrugging off the hard day they had. She looked very peaceful and Hotch hated to have to wake her up, but he had to tell her about what he had just saw.

He gently nudged her shoulder. "Prentiss, wake up."

Prentiss turned over and mumbled and Hotch had to try again with more force this time. Prentiss groaned but this time, she woke up.

She rubbed her eyes and looked like she wanted to murder Hotch. She questioned him,

"Can't it wait until tomorrow?"

"Emily, I have to tell you something. Something came to me while I was examining those files. I saw myself on a bus where a guy with a black mask came on board and started shooting everyone."

"Well, that's ...strange, to say the least. Has this actually happened to you before?"

"No but it doesn't matter. Listen. I've been at that crime scene before, Em. We all have."

Emily thought about it for a second and then looked shocked as she came to the same conclusion Hotch had reached.

"Foyet?"

Hotch nodded.

Prentiss looked even more worried now. "You know that doesn't make sense right Hotch? Foyet is dead. We both know that. This can't be him."

Hotch looked pained now. He was remembering exactly how Foyet had died and it still was a disturbing memory.

"I know that, but it's what I saw."

Emily looked sympathetically at Hotch. "Maybe instead of being a Son of Sam copycat, our unsub is copying Foyet."

"I thought about that possibility as well, but there are still a lot of differences between these killings and the Foyet ones. Foyet was generally a lot more violent in his killings and used a knife as well, while our unsub only has used a gun so far."

"Copycats sometimes leave a few distinctions because they want to be recognized as something else other than a copycat."

Hotch sat down silently, concentrating on the many thoughts that were tumbling around in his mind. "Is Emily right? Is this just a Foyet copycat? I didn't see any connection at first and I still don't but I must have had that vision for a reason. Or maybe I'm just cracking up."

Emily said to Hotch reassuringly, "Whatever it is, it's not Foyet. He's dead, Hotch."

That was the option that stuck around in Hotch's head and also the one that terrified him the most. Hotch then shook his head. "Foyet was a twisted, psychopath and I made sure that he couldn't hurt anyone else ever again. He can't be back! It just doesn't make sense..."

Prentiss nuzzled against Hotch's arm. "Let's just get some rest, Hotch. We'll tell the team about this tomorrow."

Hotch wanted to continue to think about this case and what he had just saw, but he knew that obsessing over it wouldn't do him or his team any good. He gently gave Prentiss a goodnight kiss and they went to sleep.

The next day, Hotch woke up and smelled fresh coffee and bacon, which made him get up instantly.

"Good morning."

Hotch was surprised to see Prentiss still here, as her room wasn't that far away and he was certain she woke up a long time before he did.

He quickly brushed his teeth and then sat down, to wolf down on his breakfast. When he was done, he noticed Prentiss looking at him strangely.

Flustered, he said "I'm sorry, I'm just starving. I don't norm..."

Prentiss interrupted him with a nervous laugh.

"It's not that Hotch".

Hotch grew concerned, "What is it, then? Is everything okay, Emily?"

"Well, it's..."

Hotch stayed silent, waiting for her to continue.

"It's about what we discussed last night. About Foyet. I don't think you should tell the rest of the team about it."

"What? Why not? I'm not going to suggest that he returned from the dead, if that's what you're worrying about."

"I know. We both thought that this could simply be a Foyet copycat. But Hotch, remember how we came to these theories about Foyet in the first place?"

Hotch then got the picture that Emily was trying to draw out for him and got angry.

"You think that I'm crazy? I randomly dreamed about a serial killer that almost killed me and my son a long time ago and decided to link it to this case?"

"It's not that", Prentiss said defensively. "In fact, it's not about me at all. I trust you about the Foyet dream you had but how about everyone else? You're already on thin ice with them as it is and if you told them about this theory that came out of nowhere..."

"Go on, Em."

"They would probably think you were just hallucinating. From sleep deprivation or too much stress. In other words, they wouldn't believe you. It would just make things worse. And to be honest, we need more proof that this is even linked to Foyet. We hardly have any."

"We're talking about discussing this to our team not giving out a complete profile, Em. I don't see the harm. We've worked together as a team for a long time now. They trust me. In fact, I've worked with them more than I have with you."

Hotch realized he had gone too far and regretted saying that last sentence.

"Wait, Em. That's not what I meant."

She shot back, "Oh that's fine. I guess my opinion doesn't mean anything to you, does it? Just because I wanted to get away from the FBI for a while?

Hotch tried to touch her arm but she shrugged him off.

"Hotch, I'm trying to help you. The rest of our team already thinks that you shouldn't even be working this case. I was the only one who thought you deserve to be here. But you know what? After seeing how selfish and self-absorbed you've been, I think I was wrong."

Emily stormed out of the room while Hotch stood there, too stunned to speak or move. After a few seconds, he regained enough energy to chase after her but he knew it was too late once he stepped out the door, as she was nowhere to be seen.

"Nice going," he muttered to himself.

Hotch thought about Emily's words and how she said that everyone else on the team had doubts that Hotch should be working this case.

Sadly, Hotch realized she was right. The team so far had not come up with many leads and although Hotch couldn't be entirely blamed for that, the fact that he kept distracting them with his problems and his delusions had lead them nowhere.

He decided that he would keep the vision that he had saw last night to himself and Prentiss and see how far the team would go without him distracting them.

Now satisfied with this idea but still worried about how Prentiss was feeling, Hotch walked out the hotel to join his team back at the Manhattan PD.

* * *

 _At the Manhattan PD_

Reid, Rossi and JJ were examining a map of Manhattan and nearby cities. Reid had managed to narrow down the map even further, into a workable radius, and the team, for the first time in a while, felt hopeful.

"Leave it to Reid to make a breakthrough in a case like this" JJ muttered.

Reid overheard and said, "Don't thank me yet. This is still just a rough estimate. But we don't have anything else to go on and I'm not willing to wait around until our unsub kills another couple to get more leads."

As they were working on that, Morgan noticed that Hotch was being awfully quiet.

"Hotch, you've hardly said anything since the day started. It's strange, even for you. Are you sure you're okay?"

As much as Hotch wanted to tell Morgan, or even anyone other than Prentiss about his vision about Foyet, he already agreed with Emily that it would do more harm than good.

"Everything's fine. I think it's just better to let Reid work his magic and work from there."

Morgan chuckled, "Yeah, that's our wonder boy for you." He glanced at Hotch's tired, haggard looking face. "Still, you look like you could use some coffee. Want some?"

Hotch didn't really but he wanted some alone time so he said yes and Morgan went away to get some.

After Hotch got his coffee, he walked over and asked Reid for an update.

"I think I've got a location for us. I had Garcia run a check on this building. It was an abandoned factory specializing in making clothing, mainly uniforms. It's been out of business for a long time now and has been left abandoned ever since then but our unsub definitely could be using it as a hideout."

Not long after, blueprints and layouts of the building were handed out to the team so that they could plan their investigation.

After a while, Hotch spoke up. "Alright, I think we're ready to check it out. Reid, JJ and Prentiss take the south exit. Rossi, Morgan and I will cover the entrance. We can meet back up over here" as he pointed toward a room near the middle of the building.

The team then drove off to their next destination, praying that they would get closer to solving this aggravating case.

* * *

When they reached the factory, the team split up as planned. Morgan and Hotch were together in one room. Hotch noted that this room had less dust and debris than the other rooms.

"There's a good chance this room was our unsub's base." he said to Morgan, who nodded in agreement.

"Yeah, it looks like it's been cleaned. Also, look at the patterns of the dust on the floor. It looks like tables, desks and anything else has been recently moved out."

As they continued searching, Morgan said "Hey Hotch, come look at this."

Morgan held something up and Hotch peered at the object in Morgan's hand. It was a rectangular piece of paper. The content printed on the card was long faded away, yet something about it looked very familiar to both Hotch and Morgan.

"It looks like either a business card or an ID card."

"How are you guys doing?" Rossi walked into the room to help search there, as he found nothing of use in the other rooms.

"Rossi, come look at this."

As Rossi was looking at the new piece of evidence, they heard a voice.

"HELP!"

Hotch, Morgan and Rossi stopped what they were doing when they heard JJ cry out and immediately sprinted towards the direction of her voice.

They ran into a nearby room, a dark and dusty conference room where one of the windows was broken. Reid was lying on the ground, with blood near his head.

"How bad is it?"

JJ explained, "He was in this room when someone came right through the window and tackled him. H..h...he.."

The rest of the team let JJ regain her composure before she continued. Hotch was grateful that Reid was still alive, although he was too dazed to speak at the moment.

"He couldn't put up a fight. He punched Reid a few times then ran out. Our unsub didn't have a weapon. Otherwise, Reid might have di..." she broke down sobbing and Emily went over to wrap her arm around her for comfort.

Hotch then remembered that this was familiar as well. Foyet had done the exact same thing to Morgan a few years ago.

Hotch felt a surge of rage grow up within him. This was partly due to seeing Reid unconscious on the ground and partly because of the unsub. Whether he was Foyet, a copycat or even if he wasn't related to Foyet at all, he had to be stopped before anyone else got hurt. Before he knew it, Hotch sprinted out the door and ran out to the direction where the unsub had fled. He heard the rest of the team call out his name but he had to go on.

He turned corner after corner until he reached the outside of the factory. He went to the window where the unsub had jumped out from. Ignoring the freezing temperature, he looked around in all directions for the unsub. Just as he was about to give up, he saw someone looking at him from behind the corner of a vehicle. Quickly, the person disappeared and by the time Hotch reached the vehicle, the unsub was out of sight. He was long gone.

Hotch, however, was in shock. He had managed to see the unsub's face for only a second, but he knew who it was. The face he had saw belonged to Foyet.


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N: Sorry for the long update. If you read this story before, I've made a few changes so please reread the previous chapters. Thanks!**

"And you're sure the person you saw was Foyet?" asked Rossi for what Hotch felt was the hundredth time today. He wasn't the only one; pretty much everyone on the team had been asking him this all day, as if he was joking or was on drugs when yesterday. The only person who remained quiet for the most part, was Prentiss.

Yet, he still couldn't blame them. He was very certain that he had seen the face of his ex-wife's murderer running away from the scene last night. And of course, that person was long dead. Hotch couldn't even bring himself to lie and say that could have been someone else he had seen because what he had seen was still very clear in his mind. That man was Foyet.

As he excused himself, the rest of the team gathered around to discuss what Hotch was saying. Morgan, noticed Emily was being rather quiet and asked, "Hey Em, what are you thinking? That maybe Hotch needs some rest so that he can stop seeing things? Or do you think Foyet came back as a zombie?"

Prentiss was almost as uncomfortable as Hotch was but answered, "I don't know. Maybe we should just wait until Garcia gets results back." Garcia was currently calling the cemetery where Foyet's body was buried to confirm he was dead. JJ was travelling there as well, to confirm his identity once they retrieved the corpse.

Reid, noticing Prentiss' odd behaviour asked, "Has Hotch talked to you about his feelings about this case? Everytime we've tried to talk to him the past few weeks, he just gives us vague answers and hardly responds at all."

Prentiss had a difficult decision to make here. Either continue to trust Hotch or tell the team everything. Neither was a good option for her. Even if she told the team what Hotch had been thinking, they would probably try to remove him from the case, which would not only get them further away from solving this case, but strain relationships within the team in future cases. But if she didn't tell them, she wouldn't even know what Hotch would do next. He might do something crazy and put himself in serious danger.

"I think we should just look at the evidence again", she said. "We haven't really had time to dissect them properly with all this talk about Foyet and Hotch."

"That's true", said Morgan. "Just yesterday we found this right?" He held up a photo of the blank card they found yesterday.

"Hang on", said Prentiss. "That looks really familiar."

Rossi took a look at it when Reid said, "Yes, doesn't it look just like a police ID card? I mean, I know most of the lettering has faded away and we can't retrieve it back, but you can still somewhat guess what it is because of the spacing and size of the letters."

Rossi said, "Yes, it could be."

Prentiss couldn't help saying, "Or it can be an FBI card".

"FBI? That seems unlikely", said Morgan.

"Well, it's not like the FBI haven't had rogue members before", she argued back, rather persistently.

"Or it could be an imposter, posing as a policeman or FBI agent. We've also had plenty of cases where that has happened."

"Ok, I'll ask Garcia to search every Manhattan policeman and FBI agent and see if any discrepancies turn up". As Morgan goes to contact Garcia, he said, "I hope you guys still know this is a long shot. I mean, it might not even be an ID card at all. It could even just be a business card."

Prentiss, Rossi and Reid nodded.

"What about this?" Rossi holds up a photo of the piece of plastic they found.

As Prentiss looks at it, she suddenly realized something.

"Wait a minute? Foyet wore a mask when he was active right?"

Reid and Rossi look at each other.

"Well...yes, but..."

"But shouldn't we try to analyze this without adding in Foyet?"

Prentiss hated the implication of what Rossi was saying, even though it was understandable that he would think that: that Hotch was just seeing things, like a dead man brought back to life.

Carefully choosing her words, to both not offend Rossi or encourage the notion that Hotch had gone off the deep end, she said, "I think we should trust Hotch. Just for a little bit longer. I mean, he's our captain and he's always come through for us."

"Are you sure this is the professional side of you speaking? Or are you arguing for Hotch for some other reason?" Rossi argued back.

Before Prentiss could reply, Reid said, "Well, normally I wouldn't agree Rossi, but we've already tried examining this on its own, and we've come up with nothing. It wouldn't hurt to go along with Hotch's idea, at least for now."

Rossi sighed but decided to go along with it. "So, if I recall correctly, Foyet's mask was black. Just like this piece we have here."

Reid added, "And it was plastic, if I'm not mistaken."

"I'm pretty sure it was confiscated after Foyet died but we can get Garcia to contact the Boston police and see if they still have it in evidence."

"Alright let's do that."

Rossi stood up and stretched his arms. "Well, it looks like we have a lot of waiting to do before we get any results back. I'm going to get some coffee. You two want some?"

They both shook their heads. Reid said, "I'm going to go talk to the ME again and see if she has any updates for us. Also to see if we missed something related to our victims."

Prentiss was then left alone and after a while, she got bored and decided to walk outside to look for Hotch. As she was, she bumped into him, as he had decided to come back inside.

"Are you alright?" she asked, concerned.

He nodded. "How is the case going?"

"Well, I managed to convince them to take your perspective on this."

Hotch rarely showed emotion but he couldn't help expressing surprise on his face at the moment. "You actually convinced them that what I saw was real?"

"Not exactly. I just told them to go along with it because it's the best lead we have right now."

Hotch's face fell upon hearing this. Emily frowned and asked, "What's wrong?"

"'Go along with it'?" he said, in a voice that was struggling to remain calm.

"I didn't mean it like that", Prentiss said.

"Then what do you mean exactly?"

"I meant to them, they were going along with it. But you know I believe you Hotch."

"I'm sure you do." Hotch sighed. "At this point, I'm not sure I even believe myself."

"At this point, you should just go away."

Hotch looked like he had been slapped across the face. Emily felt sorry for him but she had to continue. "Crying about people believing you isn't going to be helping anyone. There are innocent people that have died and even more people that are still going to die because of this guy. Instead of thinking about protecting them, you would rather just sulk around because no one believes you."

"You guys are supposed to be my team!" Hotch almost yelled.

"I know we are. And I do believe you, even if no one else does. But just because we're a team, doesn't mean we'll always be on the same page. However, that doesn't mean they don't respect you anymore, Hotch. That's something you should know."

Hotch looked away, unable to meet her eyes.

"We're doing this for the victims, Hotch. Not for ourselves."

For a second, Prentiss thought he would turn around and leave, but he said, "Okay, I'll come back in and work you guys then." He walked past Prentiss without a glance at her.

For a few moments, Prentiss grew worried and was scared that she was too harsh on Hotch. After all, hasn't the guy gone through enough? She then walked back to the conference room and took one look at the board where information about the case was posted, particularly the victims. This one look was enough to convince her that she had done the right thing. "This isn't about Hotch, me, Reid, Rossi or the rest of the team. It's about them. Getting justice for the innocent people who were murdered. It's about the people who are going to get hurt next. And it's about the unsub. Finding out his psychological profile to stop him once and for all."

* * *

"Well, I've got some news for you guys."

"Welcome back, JJ."

"Lucky you, you get the longest break from this case", said Rossi.

JJ smiled and said, "So, I just found out that Foyet's body is still there." The team glanced at each other but said nothing. "I heard Morgan was still looking for his mask. Should we call him back?"

"I think we should let him do his job", Reid said. Since Hotch was at the table now and looking in an even worse shape than before, he didn't want to offend him. Besides, they still had to follow all possible leads. Just because Foyet was still buried underground didn't mean that the mask was going to be in its proper place.

"I have to go", Hotch said suddenly. Before anyone could react, he stood up and began walking towards the exit.

"Hotch, wa..." Reid stood up as well, ready to stop Hotch, when Rossi put his hand on his shoulder.

"Just let him. He's dealt with enough. And maybe with him gone, we can try seeing this case from a different perspective."

Prentiss watched guiltily as Hotch walked away. She knew that while her conversation with Hotch earlier wasn't the only reason he was leaving (the discovery of Foyet's body still in its proper place probably had the most to do with that), it was one of them.

"While we're waiting for Morgan, I have something to tell you guys. The ME just told me that she missed something when she was looking over Ethan Jones' body. That's the unsub's third victim."

"So, what was it she missed?" asked JJ.

"Well..."

* * *

As Hotch was walking back, he was feeling worse than ever. "Foyet's still dead. I guess everyone was right. I have lost it. I think I'm going to take myself off the case. It will be for the best", he thought.

"No one could ask any more from me. I've helped solve hundreds of cases before this. This one just isn't for me."

As he entered his room, he decided on taking a drink. He normally didn't drink, outside of special occasions, but of course, the circumstances were different now. Just as he was about to give in to the temptation, he remembered Prentiss's talk with him earlier.

"We're doing this for the victims, Hotch. Not for ourselves."

That was the line she said. The one that stood out to him.

Slowly, he put the drink down and repeated the phrase, spoken in Prentiss' voice, over and over again, in his mind.

"Okay, Emily. You're right. I can't give up now. Too many people are depending on me."

Hotch takes out the case file and looks it over. There still isn't much on it but that doesn't deter Hotch. For some reason, he feels rejuvenated. And then he spots it. He grabs the picture of the card with its wording wiped out. It was very difficult to see but he could make out the faint letters. This was definitely an FBI card. Not only that, but Hotch could make out a few things about the name. It was relatively short overall and he couldn't identify an actual letter. The only ones that were even remotely workable were the second or third one in the first name and either the fourth or fifth in the surname."

"Is that a 'G'? It looks like it", he thought, looking at the letter in the first name. He tried to look harder but it still seemed like a 'G' to him. "I should call Garcia and ask her to check FBI member's with their first names with 'G' as the second or third letter. That should narrow the search a lot..." he thought sarcastically.

That's when Hotch saw it clearly.

"My God, that's not a 'G, that's an 'O'. And that letter in the surname, the fourth or fifth one, that one is a 'T'. Hotch got too distracted on solving this mini-hangman game to call Garcia. Or to notice the footsteps outside his door.

Just as the answer came to him, the door suddenly opened. "He must have lockpicked it. He wouldn't even need to use a more sophisticated method, even though he could. After all, this hotel's security was terrible", was Hotch's only thought before the man who entered raised a taser and pointed it directly at Hotch. Hotch was only able to look at the man's face for a few seconds before he got knocked out. Unfortunately, the face was being obscured by a mask. A mask that was black and plastic. A mask that had a chip in the jaw area. A mask that Hotch previously saw worn several years ago, by a man named George Foyet.


End file.
